CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Melissa McCabe looked at Felicity Feldman with contempt and fear in her eyes. “Why did you do that?” she cried out as she held the side of her face Melissa had just slapped. “I tried with everything within me, Mel. He kicked me out. He made me leave!”
“I told you it had to work. Did I not tell you that? This time it had to work or it’s your ass!”
“And it would have worked if he would have let me stayed. But he wouldn’t. He kicked me out.”
“Why would he kick you out? Tell me that, Fee. He knew you were coming over. You said it was arranged. What changed?”
Felicity hated to admit it. “Another woman was there.”
Melissa looked as if she didn’t expect that news. “Another woman? What woman?”
“I don’t know who she is. I don’t even remember her name or if she ever told it to me.”
“But we did our homework. There’s no other woman in his life.”
“I know that’s what you said. But one was there. A very young one too.”
“Young? Like how young?”
“Early twenties. Something like that.”
Melissa shook her head in bafflement. “That makes no sense. He’s not into women that age. Thirty-five is his starting point, not his finish. It’s well documented. You aren’t making any sense, Felicity.”
“I’m telling you what I saw with my own two eyes okay?” Her face was still stinging. “There was a woman there and he was very protective of her. She’s the main reason he kicked me out.”
“And you’ve never seen her with him even at social events?”
“That child at any of our social events? Don’t be ridiculous! He would not dare parade her around us. No. I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
“Describe her?”
“She’s African-American or whatever they call themselves now. She’s slender, but she’s got some little curves too. And her name is Joynetta Johnson. I remembered that.”
“Is she pretty?”
“If you go for that sort of thing, I guess so.”
Melissa shook her head. “Your ass is jealous of some twenty-year-old kid? Please!”
“He threw me out, Melissa! I don’t care about her. He threw me out and you’re blaming me for something I had no control over. How do you think I feel?”
Melissa let out a long exhale. As if she was thinking about what her next move would be, rather than what had transpired. Then she looked at Felicity. “Your nose is bleeding,” she said to her.
Horrified, Felicity hurried to the bathroom. Then Melissa pulled out her phone, exhaled with a loud exhale, and then made a call that was answered on the second ring.
“Is it done?”
Melissa shook her head. “No. Not yet.”
“I thought you told her it had to get done this time!”
“It will. But we had a slight glitch.”
“Such as?”
“He had another woman with him. He kicked Felicity out of his house because of this other woman.”
“Did you know he had another woman?”
“No! He’d been riding solo for a long time. That was why I felt the timing with Felicity would be perfect.”
“Do we have a name for this other woman?”
“Joynetta Johnson. A young gorgeous black girl. I say gorgeous because Fee tried to play it down. She’s jealous of her.
She probably got kicked out because she was disrespecting the kid.
I don’t know the details. But for him to kick her out like that, it has to mean Skeffington have some level of feelings for the girl or he wouldn’t give a shit.
So Felicity wasn’t able to come through. ”
“What’s our next move?”
“Get rid of Felicity,” Melissa said in a cold, uncaring tone. “Make certain she’s never seen again.”
“And then?”
“And then find out all you can about the girl. You haven’t been giving me good intel if he has some new love interest we knew nothing about.”
“And then?”
“And then we find out what she truly means to him. That will be the key. Because getting somebody alone with him again might prove difficult. I don’t have a pile of socialites in my pocket.
It was a good plan, but it blew up in our faces.
And we didn’t see it coming. That had better not be the case a second time. Now get to work!”
“Yes ma’am.” And the call ended.
Felicity, standing in the doorway of the powder room, looked at Melissa. “Does this mean I won’t get the rest of the money?”
Melissa looked at her with a chilling look. “What do you think bitch?” she asked her.